Quick hits from Monday's practice

Some quick thoughts from the Ducks' practice sesssion at Honda Center on a very rainy Monday:

-- In theory, if Ducks coach Randy Carlyle applies his "if you're win, you're in" approach to tomorrow's home game against Dallas, it would mean that Jonas Hiller would get the start given that Jean-Sebastien Giguere took the loss in Sunday's 4-3 shootout defeat against Ottawa.

The fact is Giguere and Hiller have been alternating starts the last four games since Hiller got the nod against the Kings after a start Giguere made against Phoenix in which he played well but lost in a shootout to Phoenix.

Neither goalie has won since and it's left Giguere wondering what would have happened had Carlyle stuck with him during a run where he went 3-0-1 with a 1.71 goals-against average.

"If you keep going, good things could happen," Giguere acknowledged. "Sometimes a judgment call is more appropriate than that. I think at this point, Jonas and I have got to just take it one day at a time, not worry too much about the next game and just worry when you're called upon and try to give the team a chance."

Carlyle's basic approach has been to foster competition between the two would-be No. 1 goaltenders. But could it be having a reverse effect where it's more you lose you're out that win and you're in.

"I'd be lying if I'd say it's not in the back of our minds," Giguere said. "My mind anyway, I don't know about Jonas. You go into the third, it's a tie game or whatever and you think about if you want to keep playing, you absolutely need to win. You can't give up that next goal.

"It's a good thing in a way because it makes you want to play well to keep playing. But it's an extra pressure you probably don't need at this point."

Of course, Carlyle wasn't going to give anything up about his decision making with his goalies other than his standard statement that "we're going to go with the guy that we fell is going to give us the best chance to win."

"You were digging last night and you're digging in the wrong area," he said to a reporter. "You just worded it differently, that's all."

-- Carlyle sounded as if he's committed to reshuffling the defense pairings for the time being. Regular partners Ryan Whitney and James Wisniewski have been split up with Whitney now skating alongside Nick Boynton and Wisniewski partnering with Sheldon Brookbank. Recent call-up Brett Festerling is with Scott Niedermayer.

"First and foremost, we think Scott Niedermayer is more effective on the right side," Carlyle said. "And second, we think that the Wisniewski and Whitney combination hasn't played to the level of our expectations as a pair. So we felt to split those two up for parts of the game.

"We're just trying to see if we can find another four players that complement one another. Festerling and Niedermayer have played together before. We're not throwing the mold away. But we're just tinkering here with trying to find pairings that are going to complement one antoher because we didn't feel that we were getting what we'd like in some of the situations that have developed in the last two weeks."

Boynton said that too much shouldn't be read into the changes.

"Coach is the coach," he said. "It's his job and it's not an enviable job when we're struggling the way we are. It's just trying to get something going. ... Maybe it's just anything to spark [us] or switch it up. I don't know."

Whitney skipped practice because he was ill.

-- Left wing Kyle Calder was cleared for full contact during practice and could be available for this weekend's road trip to Detroit and Columbus as his problem with hyphema in his left eye (or blood in the iris) has cleared up.

The injury occurred during practice Oct. 28 when Calder was struck by a puck that ramped up his stick during a drill. Calder said the blood dissipated in three days but that his vision is still a little foggy.

"It's still not back 100 percent," he said. "Right away, [the blood] was pretty bad but it cleared up quite fast."

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